


Perspectives

by Tallihensia



Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Barbershop Quartet, Gen, Multi, Short Ficlet, Slice of Life, Vacations, as you will, flying sam, gen - Freeform, gentle times, looking forward for hope, ot4 as friendship or more, short reflections, taking time out, touch of angst looking back, with some play
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-30
Updated: 2019-09-30
Packaged: 2020-11-08 05:20:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20830064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tallihensia/pseuds/Tallihensia
Summary: :   On a vacation, Sam stretches his wings for the sheer joy of flying. Steve, Bucky, and Nat watch from below and reflect on their friend and themselves.  Time to move forward... and to have some play time too.  Hope lies ahead.





	Perspectives

**Author's Note:**

> For Sam Wilson's Birthday Bang :) I have a lot of other things going on, but I couldn't let this pass by. 
> 
> Artwork by Anis - tumblr anisstaranise
> 
> The art is perfect for the story. Thank you so much for it! I love Flying Sam, and the art that you made expressed it perfectly, for me and the quartet. :)

# Perspectives

  


No big bad of the day, no explosions, no villainous plots, nobody trying to kill them... for once, it was just a quiet, beautiful cloudy day. Well, there were probably people plotting somewhere, but it wasn’t their concern for the moment. It was a day without heroism, and Sam was darn well going to take advantage of that.

Stretching out his wings to their fullest, then sweeping them gently, Sam flew above the cabin they were staying at. He first did a preliminary scout out of both habit and caution. Just because they were on vacation didn't mean they had to be stupid about it. The goggles gave him thermal readings and kinetic patterns, with the option to switch to Redwing's point of view if he needed to. Right now, he had Redwing perched in a tree near the cabin with the best overlook. 

For a moment, he switched one eye over, just to see. There were Steve and Bucky and Nat, respectively sitting on the pouch, leaning on a support beam, and perched on the railing, all staring up into the sky in the direction Sam was flying. His partners. Not in the air next to him, but with him all the same. It was good to have partners and friends. Sam turned back their direction and waggled his wings at them. Steve raised a hand in return.

Then Sam looked to the clouds and flew.

\---

When he used his wings to push through the air, Sam delighted in the rush of wind and air and defying the elements; having it all go by him where man was never meant to be. He could fly helicopters and airplanes and all sorts of other devices designed to take humans off the earth they were born on, yet none of that came near to the feeling of doing this so close and real to the sky. 

As a trained pararescue member, Sam had initially been interested in the EXO-Falcon program for the immediate advantages he could see for rescue. Getting into locations not fit for a helicopter, more stealth, maneuverability, could fly closer to the ground with less local disruption... Sure, there were disadvantages too – not able to carry a full med kit, limitations on actual rescue numbers and severity, and so on. But it was worth the effort of the pilot program to see how these things could be balanced out. That's what Sam had thought going in. 

The first time he strapped on the wings for real and went up in the actual sky (not just the hanger tests and trails they'd done in preparation)... oh, the first time he was up there himself.... On that moment, his wings were no longer just the mechanical device he used; they were a part of him as he flew through the air. Himself now part of the sky, a person defying limitations and up far from the ground, looking down.... With that moment, the program was not just about pararescue alone. Pararescue was what he was, it was what he did. This new ability for flight and flying, though, was something different, something more than just him alone. It meant something very special to him, and his wings were part of that, and they were part of him, and they were part of the sky.

In the here and now, Sam turned in the air, going higher, circling over the cabin and pushing himself up just for the sheer pleasure of it. He laughed, delighted as always with his autonomy. Just him and the sky. The wings with him in this journey, a partner as they reached out and flew.

Up high, Sam folded his wings in and dropped, just for the sheer pleasure of feeling it. In a hot air balloon or glider, one didn't feel velocity or pressure, one drifted with the wind and all was still and silent around that apex. If he wanted, Sam could do that too – stretch out his wings and simply glide along. And he would, later on, after he'd finished his play. For now... Just before the trio on the ground would start to worry, Sam snapped out his wings. His plummet towards Earth stopped and Sam again started a spiral to the clouds. 

At some point, Sam would turn to look down, to admire the view from up high, to feel the majesty of surveying it all and being able to go anywhere he could see. For now, though, it was time to test himself against the elemental air, to match against the winds, and rise with the eddies, and to play as he never could upon the ground.

Diving again, Sam didn’t go quite so low, pulling out around treetop level, then weaving around them. At speed, it was a challenging obstacle course. Skiing in three dimensions, a fighter jet without the canopy around him, underwater holding onto a dolphin. Knowing where his wings were, when to turn, where every branch was, what was coming up as well as what was immediately there. He wasn’t like Stark, in flying metal armor. Sam and his wings were there with the birds and other creatures of the air, living in the element. 

He could feel the air he passed through, as much as holding a hand out during a car ride, yet this was with his whole body. Physics be damned. Not everybody who had tried out for the program had made it in, because it made no sense. Those who tried to apply logic to their every move failed – one had to _live_ it, be part of it, for it to happen. 

Pulling up from the trees, Sam reached for the clouds. They were generally higher than his breath could last, but there were often a few lower ones he could play with. So fluffy on the outside – candy and fluff, spun sugar in the sky. Appearance of solid state, and yet… Sam plunged through. Water drops the only things even partially resisting his intrusion. Sam marveled at clouds. There were whole sciences made up of people fascinated with them, trying to understand them. A hundred different names for types of clouds and what they meant. For Sam, it meant another sibling in the sky for him to play with.

Closing his wings, curling in around himself, Sam dropped. Without the jets, without the wings, he was no longer a part of the element. Particles splitting all around him as he plunged through nothing, gravity working hard to reclaim what it thought it owned. 

Sam uncurled, placing his body into the sky, without the wings for the moment. There was enough of him for the particles to catch and hold, not dramatically slowing, but allowing him into the air as more a part of it. There was a reason some people were addicted to sky diving, feeling this brief aerial kinship. 

Before the trees came in danger range, Sam spread his wings, catching more of the sky and proving his deeper kinship. He tilted from side to side, working his way slowly back up again.

He loved the sky so very much. For this brief while, he could be with it whole.

\--- 

"Stark would build you wings if you asked. Then you could be up there with him." Bucky's voice was low, cautious, presenting an option but ready to back off if it wasn't well received.

Steve didn't look around, keeping his eyes on the figure in the sky. Sam was graceful, beautiful, every turn and dive speaking of his delight and the fun he was having. "No. The wings are Sam's. I wouldn't take that from him." He held up a hand, preventing any rebuttal. "If I had wings, Sam would be the copy, not me, no matter what facts might truly be. We've all seen it happen. Sam is special all on his own, and I'll be damned if I keep others from seeing it." 

As Sam dive-bombed a low-drifting cloud, then flew through it and up again, Steve smiled, watching his friend. "I'm his partner; we work together, we fight together, we train together, we vacation together. I don't have to fly to be with Sam."

Sam's laughter floated down to them. Steve tilted his head back to drink it in. "Besides, if I was up there, I wouldn't be able to watch him. Not like I get to down here."

There were murmurs of agreement from the other two.

"You could, though," Steve said thoughtfully. "If you think Sam wants company, you could join him."

Bucky walked down the cabin steps and sat down next to Steve. He shook his head. "I'm not afraid of heights, but I don't love them. Not like he does. Being up there... I would only be doing it for him, and that wouldn't be enough." 

Sam flew up, up higher almost than they could see. Staying above the cabin, in range of his friends, but on a course they could not follow. 

"This is more than enough for me," Bucky breathed out, watching the glint of wings. "He comes back. That's more than I'd ever ask for."

There was a little silence as Sam started circling up high, his wings tilting from one side to the other. Somersaults in the air, bursts of speed, dashes at clouds, sudden turns and dives. Sam was enjoying himself, and they were taking the opportunity to watch.

As the stillness stretched, the two men twisted to look at Nat.

Nat didn't turn her gaze from the sky, but she sighed, acknowledging their unasked question. "I saw them, you know. When I was investigating Sam after Steve decided one jog was enough for him."

"It was more than the jog," Steve protested without much force. The now was so much more than the beginnings had ever been.

"Saw who?" Bucky asked more practically.

"His old team, through the recorded EXO training sessions." She paused. "Riley."

The silence took a different weight. Bucky swallowed and retreated back to his support beam. Steve closed his eyes, missing the feel of Bucky beside him, and knowing just how permanent that feel was for Sam. They had bonded over that once, the loss of their partners. And then Bucky was back, but Riley would always be gone.

"We can't replace what they had," Nat said softly, quiet with reality. "We never can. They were different – _Sam_ was different. We've all changed, and the world has changed as well. I don't want to go backwards. We can miss what was there in the past, but it doesn't mean we can go back there." 

Nat hopped off the railing and walked into the center of the clearing. She turned to look at Steve and Bucky, but her gaze continued up and off to one side. Redwing perched there in a tree, near to them, watching them as they were watching Sam. Sam was up among the elements, yet with them at the same time.

"We can't replace the past," Nat repeated, turning her face to the sky. "We can, though, be ourselves, and hope that it's enough that he stays with us."

"Comes back," Bucky corrected. "None of us are good at staying."

Steve snorted. "Speak for yourself and Nat." He sighed, glancing around at his team. There were more people he considered his friends and family with the extended Avengers group, people he both worked and played with, and trusted. The four of them, though, would always be the core of him. His core, his heart, no matter where they all roamed. Sometimes it seemed as if Bucky and Nat would never stay in one place long. Sam, though… Sam stayed with Steve, no matter where they went. He considered that in light of Bucky’s remark, and finally shrugged. Bucky could well be right – Steve’s home wasn’t a place anymore, it was people. Sam was his anchor, Bucky his soul, and Nat his wings. All of them were his heart. He’d thought he’d lost that long ago, and then found it again. Different, but still part of him. "We can't replace the past,” Steve echoed. “Nat, was that your sneaky way of trying to make a statement about me?"

Nat blinked once. Then she grinned. "Could have been. But no. We're just all very similar. That's why we all fit together so well." 

All of them had lost, survived, and gone on. 

Redwing launched from the tree branch, swinging in a circle around Nat, then weaving between the stair rails to do the same for Bucky and Steve. Redwing did this twice more, then flew up higher to join Sam.

Steve pinched the bridge of his nose, briefly embarrassed. He’d known perfectly well Redwing was there; he hadn’t thought Sam was keeping that close an eye on them. Or ear.

Nat laughed. “As if Sam doesn’t know it perfectly well. Or we wouldn’t have also said it to his face.”

In the sky, the Falcon and Redwing played tag, staying within sight of the ground.

“You ought to be used it, Stevie,” Bucky contributed, grinning. His surveillance among them was legendary, and he and Nat made games of locating and exchanging each other’s bugs.

“I’m used to it,” Steve sighed, resigned. Privacy was also something none of them did well, except him. Sometimes. Love and care showed itself in different ways, which was something he was also used to. Especially in their group. Not one Avenger didn’t have something from their past, and all of them had their particular ways. Everybody learned to adapt, knowing that they all had that in common.

Redwing came down, circling around the three of them again – individually and together. Then the robotic bird flew to the tree where it had been roosting before. This time, it settled higher in the branches. It wasn’t quite beyond surveillance range, but it was a declaration that Sam wouldn’t.

Nat walked back to the cabin steps and sat on the bottom step near Steve’s feet. “Aw, he loves us.”

“We knew that.” Bucky came and sat next to Steve again, bracketing Nat.

Steve let himself absorb the togetherness of the ones near, and tilted his head to watch the one far. “Shush, you two. I want to watch.”

“So do we.” They settled into quiet again, watching their Falcon.

\--

Sam’s ears were burning. He’d only been paying partial attention to what Redwing had been relaying, up until Riley’s name. Nat knew what she’d been doing. She was subtly letting him know what was going on and that he might want to listen. She also confirmed what he’d always suspected – that she’d known more of him than she’d let on, back in those early days. Nat let people be who they were, though, more than what was in dossiers. 

Activating Redwing’s play mode put the bird into a program he’d worked out with Jarvis, while Tony made sarcastic remarks, and occasionally helpful suggestions. Sam had also asked for Dummy’s input, which had that elderly AI almost spinning in circles from excitement. Jarvis had been the one to ask why. Sam had replied, “because his heart is always in the right place.” Unspoken was, ‘even if his timing and execution need some work’. Tony had cracked a smile, understanding perfectly, and gave his blessing for Dummy’s input. From that, they’d developed a program that kept Sam on his toes, while giving it both unpredictability and fun.

As Sam traded “you’re it” tags with Redwing, he took a moment to glance below. His friends and partners. People he wouldn’t trade for the world. Nat was right – life moved on, and so had Sam. The past was what it was, and the new life he’d found he wouldn’t give up. He was used to having family, friends, loved ones… Sam did not lead a lonely life, either before or after the Avengers. But there was something in him that always looked for more. In Steve, in Bucky, in Nat… he’d found that more. 

Stretching his wings, turning in the sky, Sam reached to touch his metal companion. Redwing squawked and circled away, indignantly complying with the five second rule of changing tags. Then Sam was on the run from his own bird.

He remembered what it was like, the long days when he had no wings. No wings, no purpose, no companions. He had friends and family and people who cared… but he didn’t have Riley and he didn’t have the sky. Sam had continued, nonetheless. Made what he could of the world. The sky was still there… he just wasn’t in it at that moment. Feet on the ground, helping where he could, looking up with a smile. His longing he kept within himself, grateful for what he’d had.

When Steve approached him… Sam had nearly blown it. He could see the shape of a new future ahead, and had reached out with the wrong approach. Thankfully, Steve let him circle back and regroup. When things unfolded with the speed of a storm, Sam had gained partners and his wings and the sky, lost the wings and the sky, kept the partners, and eventually got new wings and another partner into the fold. It had been a rollercoaster of a ride. Sam loved every minute of it. Well, almost every minute.

As Sam was distracted looking back at his three again, Redwing darted in and tagged him. Sam laughed, praising his bird. Bucky wasn’t wrong… if Sam ever wanted to, he’d leave. He’d done it before, he would do it again, if he needed to. With these three, though, he didn’t need to, didn’t want to. Steve was a solid core of trust and goodness, Bucky a soft, wild storm of loyalty and defense, Nat a sharp chameleon of bright intelligence and commitment. With the three of them… Sam didn’t ever have to leave. They were what he wanted and needed – partners as true and complete as there could ever be. He had his wings, the sky, his team. They would go through danger and hardships still, but that was life, and this one was worth living.

Letting Redwing return to the ground, Sam cut most of the propellant and tilted his wings to catch an airstream. The goggles tracked different currents, which was incredibly useful. He turned that function and all the others off, drifting for a time the old fashioned way. 

He would return to them, eventually. For now, though, it was still the time of the air.

Closing his eyes, Sam drifted, holding his wings and arms out, balancing in nothing.

Before, he had pitted himself against the sky, playing amongst the air, feeling it as he went through. Now… now he held himself still and let the air be his guide. Feeling of motion gradually disappeared as he and the currents became one. Drifting with the ease of the element he let claim him. 

\--

Bucky swallowed with his longing, watching Sam up in the sky. He could never be that secure, that sure of himself. Sam was an ideal made flesh, though he knocked that idea out of Bucky often enough. Sam was… Sam was Sam. There wasn’t anything else to describe him. Sam was laughter, bright and cheerful; Sam was danger, fiery and resolute; Sam was support, kind and clear. 

When Bucky had come back to himself, a wounded beast not wanting anyone near, there had been Steve, as he always was. Reaching out to him, determined and still so very Steve. There had also been Sam, watching out for Steve, keeping a careful eye on the danger he saw that Steve ignored. That had been what first drew Bucky’s attention. Stevie always did need more care than ever he’d admit to, and Bucky appreciated anybody doing that thankless task that he’d let go. 

As they’d gotten to know each other, Bucky realized that Sam was a little more like Steve – not a determent against jumping into the lava flow, but a partner jumping right along with him, soaring through the fire above while Steve swam it below. And Nat, popping in and out with random caustic saves, right there with them in unpredictable waves. By that time, Bucky was resigned to it, and accepted that this was just his life now. A life he hadn’t looked to have, but they had him, and he wouldn’t let them go.

Steve’s leg pressed close against his, while Nat leaned back, both a reassuring presence for his worries. Bucky took in their nearness, opened his eyes, and watched Sam fly. Sam would come back to them; he always did.

\--

After some time of Sam gliding on the air, the edges of his wings twitched. It was the tiniest movements, and some might have thought he was adjusting for the currents… but Nat knew it wasn’t. She knew Sam, and knew as well as Bucky did that Sam always came back to them.

Standing up, Nat brushed off her clothes in a gesture completely unnecessary but one she used to check the weapons and devices she had on her. They were on vacation… but some reflexes were ingrained. Even as Sam flew his initial perimeters before letting himself play. 

Bucky stood up as well, moving to the bucket he’d placed earlier on the porch. 

Steve glanced between the two of them, then up to the sky again. He watched for a moment longer, then followed Nat out into the clearing. Nat was fairly sure he hadn’t seen the subtle cues she had, but Steve picked up on his own, trusting her interpretation. It was part of what made them a team, each with different skills and strengths, blending with each other, trusting each other.

There had been so few in her life that Natalia had ever trusted, or believed in. Natasha had made much better choices, mostly by near-accident. Trusting one, which led to another, which lead to an organization of people she could work with. SHIELD had become the family she’d never had. And when that had fallen apart, there had been Steve and Sam, holding the weight of all she’d believed in just between the two of them. Steve the hero of legend; Sam proving that there were good men still in the universe who would step forward. 

Nat moved back to the trees, under one next to the one Redwing perched in. She had been their third, up until duty took her away. She’d aided and abated their quest to find a new third – Nat sure that Bucky would replace her, Sam equally sure that he would replace him. Neither quite counting on Steve’s ability to love so many, and his fierce and angry determination not to give up what he’d found. Not Bucky, not Sam, not Nat… Steve wouldn’t give up any of them, not for each other. And so they’d reforged themselves again.

Reaching up between the braches, Nat retrieved the Widow’s Stick she’d left there earlier. It was more of a lacross stick than a weapon… but when the others teased her, she couldn’t deny having upgraded it with a few other odds and ends. They might like to play, but it never hurt to have some extras, just in case.

Sam had glided down, still in the air, but closer to them, watching with that engaging grin of his. It was time.

Bucky lobbed a tennis ball her way, a straight-forward throw, wind-up for what was to come. She caught it in the net atop her staff, and spun, throwing it out again with force. At the same time, Bucky threw another.

Both their volleys were deflected – Steve’s by shield, Sam’s by wing. Both of them had deflected towards Bucky. Bucky lobbed another one out before he raised his arm, letting one ricochet off and then grabbing and throwing the other. That made two towards Sam, one towards Nat. 

Sam folded his wings in, then out, each wing hitting a ball and angling them out – one towards Steve, the other to Nat. Nat had returned her own ball Bucky’s way, though she’d been sorely tempted to gang up on Steve. Next time. There were plenty of opportunities coming.

They kept up their play, in and out of the trees and clearing, tennis balls constantly in action, with Bucky bringing more in as needed. Laughter rang out loud and clear from Sam and Steve. Bucky’s grin was quieter but still there, as was Nat’s. 

Eventually, the sweat was dripping even from the super-soldiers and the sun was angling down. Bucky caught each ball that came his way and dropped them back into the bucket.

Sam dropped out of the sky, diving down in that devastating attack he used to great effect among their enemies. There was nothing quite like the combination of surprise from an unexpected direction, and the sheer impact of Sam barreling into somebody.

In this case, the person he barreled into was Steve, who had braced for the impact and went with it. The two of them flying fifteen feet back before they hit the ground rolling, laughing like maniacs. They kept rolling, alternating between trading punches and curving as they rolled to make sure the other didn’t get hurt. 

Nat grinned, watching the puppies in their pile. She glanced across the clearing, meeting Bucky’s amused gaze, in perfect accord. 

They stayed like that for a moment, enjoying the moment, knowing who they were with and trusting in play as well as work. Then Nat and Bucky joined in the pile, eliciting a squawk and a yell and turning it into a free-for-all between them. All was fair in love and war, and this was both.

\--

When they were done with their dusty, worn-out play, with the sun dipping low on the horizon and the moon coming out to have its turn, the quartet slipped away one by one to take turns in the shower before regrouping. 

Sam was the last to leave the porch, his wings put to the side, his head tilted up to watch the emerging stars. The sky was up there. It would be up there tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after that. That was a sure thing about the elements – they would always be where they were supposed to be. For as much as he loved the sky, though, he wasn’t a part of it, not truly. He was a visitor, a patron, an admirer, a lover. 

His true partners were inside the cabin. Not elementals, not unless they were shape-shifters unrevealed (which he honestly wouldn’t put past Natasha, even if she never said). They were people. People he loved and respected, who felt the same towards him. They let him have his time in the sky, made room for him when he returned, and joined in with equal delight in all they did. 

The sky might have him for awhile, as it always would. These people? These people would have him forever, as they were.

Getting up with a final glance to the darkened sky and stars decorating it with lures, Sam turned towards the cabin door. Nat stood in the doorway, quietly watching him. As he stepped forward, she opened the door wider. Inside, he could see Steve and Bucky, sitting on the couch together but heads turned towards him, waiting. 

Tomorrow, the sky would be there again, or the next day. Tonight, though… tonight, Sam was home.

  


* * *

END

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Birthday, Sam :) It's short, but I hope Sam-fans can enjoy!
> 
> Artwork by [Anis - tumblr anisstaranise](https://anisstaranise.tumblr.com)


End file.
